My neighbor’s chicken has a case of gender confusion and awoke at 6:30 this morning rehearsing her crow. Seems she is taking on some rooster characteristics in her bid to lead a coop d’état.

The puns keep me laughing but my neighbor is at the end of her rope. The chicken, Beatrice, a black-and-white Dominique, has been slowly taken over the coop while perfecting her crow.

Each day the syllables become more distinctly cockadoodle dooish and Beatrice is picking on the other girls, including the copper-colored Orpington and the silver-plumed Houdan, eponymously named Penny and Blanche.

About a year ago Blanche failed to brood so my neighbor returned home one day with 3 fertilized eggs to encourage Blanche’s maternal instincts. Blanche attended to the eggs and when they hatched, 3 raven-colored chicks emerged.

One was adopted and the little black hen became the whipping girl for the aggressive Beatrice, who picks at her noggin and chases her around the backyard.

So my neighbor is looking to board Beatrice at a neighbor’s to bring peace and quiet to the brood-ha-ha.